In recognition of Women’s History Month, Business Forward is once again highlighting women leaders in business across the country.
“The correlation between women at the C-suite level and firm profitability is demonstrated repeatedly, and the magnitude of the estimated effects is not small,” a study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics and EY recently published.
The 31 women below are making an impact in their communities, their companies, and are an inspiration to others.
Amy Hood, Executive Vice President and CFO, Microsoft
Amy became the company’s first female CFO in 2013 and is one of Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women in the World. Under her leadership, commercial cloud revenue has achieved an annual run rate of $9.4 billion and grown by triple-digits. Full bio >
Carmen Nava, Senior Vice President – Premium Care for AT&T’s Entertainment Group
Carmen Nava leads AT&T Entertainment Group’s efforts to care for customers with more complex needs, while providing continuous improvements across the business. She was recognized as one of the Top 5 Latina Executives of the year for 2013 by Latina Style Magazine for her work to empower women and the Hispanic community and was selected by Hispanic Professionals in the Information Technology Industry (HITEC) as one of the Top 100 most influential and notable Hispanics in the technology industry in 2016. Full bio >
Holly Agra, CEO & President, Chicago’s First Lady Cruises
Chicago’s First Lady Cruises is the official cruise line of the Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise, recently recognized as one of the “Top 10 Tours in the United States” by TripAdvisor. She is an award-winning tourism professional with a deep commitment to promoting Chicago as a travel destination. Full bio >
Anne Wojcicki, Co-Founder and CEO, 23andMe
Anne Wojcicki founded 23andMe, a personal genomics and biotechnology company, after spending a decade in healthcare investing. Her company has made significant advances in bringing personalized medicine directly to the public. Full bio>
Alexandra Stanton, CEO, Empire Global Ventures, LLC
Alexandra Stanton is the CEO of Empire Global Ventures, LLC in New York, NY. She is an attorney with a proven record of executive leadership in business development, technology, organizational development, and public-private markets. In 2013, she was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Board of Trustees of The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Full bio >
Karen Lynch, CEO, Aetna
Karen Lynch is President of Aetna, a Fortune 50 diversified health care benefits company. She is responsible for driving the strategic execution of Aetna’s vision through her leadership of the company’s commercial, government, and specialty businesses, representing 95 percent of Aetna’s revenues. She’s the first woman to serve in the role in the company’s 160 year history. Full bio >
Barbara Desoer, CEO, Citibank
Barbara Desoer is the CEO of Citibank and a member of its Board of Directors. She joined Citibank in 2013 and is the co-head of Citigroup’s global women’s initiative, Citi Women. Full bio >
Jo Anne Jenkins, CEO, AARP
Jo Anne Jenkins is a nationally recognized leader with a 25-year track record of growth and innovation at some of the nation’s largest public and nonprofit organizations. As CEO of AARP, she leads a nationwide network of staff, volunteers, and partners helping more than 100 million Americans 50 and older achieve health and security, financial resilience and personal fulfillment. Full bio >
Kira Wampler, CMO, Lyft
Kira Wampler brings more than 20 years of marketing and product leadership to Lyft. Previously at Trulia, she launched the company’s first ever national marketing campaign and led all consumer product and marketing efforts. Full bio >
Geisha Williams, President of Electric, Pacific Gas & Electric
Over the last six years under her leadership, PG&E customers have benefitted from the best reliability in company history. Before PG&E, she held officer level positions leading electric distribution, as well as variety of positions of increasing responsibility in customer service, marketing, external affairs and electric operations at Florida Power and Light Company. She is also active in Executive Women in Energy and the University of Miami’s President Council. Full bio >
Maria Castañón Moats, Chief Diversity Officer, PwC
Maria Castañón Moats joined the PwC in 1994 and became a partner in 2004. She is responsible for overseeing the firm’s diversity strategy. PwC is known as a top company for diversity, receiving high rankings and awards from DiversityInc magazine, Working Mother magazine, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, and the Great Place to Work Institute, among others. Full bio >
Laysha Ward, Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer, Target
Layesha Ward leads Target’s commitment to integrate corporate citizenship into its daily operations, with direct responsibility for sustainability, diversity and inclusion, service and philanthropy, and other key reputational strategies. Full bio >
Linda Jojo, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, United Airlines
Linda Jojo is responsible for the effective implementation and management of technology strategy and solutions to support United’s global businesses. Full bio >
Tami Erwin, Senior Vice President and Group President, Verizon
Tami Erwin is responsible for all sales, marketing operations, and customer service strategies that touch voice, data, and video customers- both consumer and small business- across the wireline footprint. Previously as Verizon’s West Area President, she was responsible for growing a $15 billion revenue stream and 20,000 employees. Full bio >
Kelly Tullier, Executive Vice President and General Council, Visa
Kelly Tullier serves as the Executive Vice President and General Council for Visa. She was previously the PepsiCo Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, managing the global legal teams around the world, and centralized teams responsible for mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, regulatory, litigation, environmental, and procurement legal work. Full bio >
Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, Executive Vice President and Treasurer, Walmart
Claire Babineaux-Fontenot serves as the Executive Vice President and Treasurer for Walmart Stores and serves as chief tax officer with responsibility for investor relations, capital markets, and treasury operations. She was named Diversity Champion by Diversity Edge magazine and was added to the “Women Worth Watching” list by Diversity Journal. Full bio >
Helene Gayle, CEO, McKinsey Social Initiative
Helene Gayle is the first CEO of the McKinsey Social Initiative, a new nonprofit founded by McKinsey & Company which brings together expert problem solvers to develop innovative approaches to complex social challenges. Her career has been focused on helping people, first as a pediatrician and as chief executive of CARE USA. Full bio >
Marie Quintero-Johnson, Vice President & Director of Mergers and Acquisitions, Cola-Cola Company
Since Marie Quintero-Johnson became the Vice President of Merges Acquisitions, Insights Corporate Real Estate in 2002, Coca-Cola has completed $20 billion worth of investment in over 100 countries. Full bio >
Deborah Rosado Shaw, Chief Global & Engagement Officer, PepsiCo
Deborah Rosado Shaw provides leadership in guiding PepsiCo’s global Diversity and Engagement (D&E) strategy to bring together diverse strengths, backgrounds, and perspectives to achieve the company’s strategic business imperatives, advance its “Performance with Purpose” goals and drive innovation. Hispanic Magazine named her among the “100 Most Successful Latinas in the U.S.” Full bio>
Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, World Food Programme
Etharin Cousin brings more than 25 years of national and international non-profit, government, and corporate leadership experience focusing on hunger, food, and resilience strategies. She received a White House appointment to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development. Full bio >
Padmasree Warrior, CEO, NextEV
Padmasree Warrior recently became the CEO of NextEV. Warrior is a technology industry, most recently serving as Cisco’s Chief Technology and Strategy Officer. Previously, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Motorola. In addition to her appointment to the NextEV board, Warrior currently serves on the boards of Box, Gap, and Microsoft. Full bio >
Judy Faulkner, CEO and Founder, Epic Systems
Judy Faulkner is the founder and chief executive of Epic Systems, a privately held company that sells healthcare software. In 2013, Forbes called her the most powerful woman in healthcare. Full bio >
Irene Rosenfeld, Chairman & CEO, Mondelēz International
Irene is the Chairman and CEO of Mondelēz International, the global snacking powerhouse launched following her strategic decision to spin-off of the company’s North American grocery operations in October 2012. The Financial Times, Fortune and Forbes have repeatedly ranked Irene on their lists of the “Top 50 Women in Global Business,” “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” and as one of the world’s “100 Most Powerful Women.” Full bio >
Susan Wojcicki, CEO, YouTube
Susan Wojcicki has been CEO of YouTube since 2014. Prior, she served as Senior Vice President of Ads & Commerce at Google for 3 years. She was also the company’s first marketing manager and was the force behind Google doodles. She also product-managed the licensing of web search, site search, and enterprise to Google’s first customers, and was responsible for the initial development of Google Image Search. Full bio >
Sandi Peterson, Group Worldwide Chairman, Johnson & Johnson
Sandi is at the forefront of Johnson & Johnson’s efforts to transform healthcare using technology and design-thinking to leverage its unique assets in innovative ways to create breakthrough solutions. Her portfolio includes the company’s global operating infrastructure, multiple consumer-facing businesses, and key enterprise initiatives designed to spur innovation and accelerate growth. She is driving the creation of a new global operating model and co-leading the effort to standardize Finance, Human Resources, Procurement and Real Estate and save over $1 billion. Full bio >
Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO, JP Morgan
Long considered one of Wall Street’s most powerful women and one of JP Morgan’s steadiest leaders, Mary Callahan Erdoes oversees $1.3 trillion as chief of J.P. Morgan Asset Management. In her first year, earnings rose 20% to $1.7 billion on $9 billion of revenues. Full bio >
Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Business Services
Bridget van Kralingen is responsible for the strategy, execution and business results of IBM’s consulting, systems integration, digital agency, business process outsourcing and application management services across more than 170 countries. Full bio >
Pamela Nicholson, President and CEO, Enterprise Holdings
A 34-year veteran of Enterprise, Nicholson is only the third CEO in the privately held company’s history and the first to come from outside the Taylor family, which founded the company in St. Louis in 1957. As CEO, she serves on the corporate board of Enterprise Holdings and is the highest ranking woman in the company as well as the entire U.S. car rental industry. Nicholson also is the highest ranking woman among the world’s largest travel companies and, based on company revenue, ranks among the top female CEOs across all industries. Full bio >